TY - JOUR
T1 - Social comparisons and contributions to online communities
T2 - A field experiment on MovieLens
AU - Chen, Yan
AU - Harper, F. Maxwell
AU - Konstan, Joseph
AU - Li, Sherry Xin
PY - 2010/9
Y1 - 2010/9
N2 - We design a field experiment to explore the use of social comparison to increase contributions to an online community. We find that, after receiving behavioral information about the median user's total number of movie ratings, users below the median demonstrate a 530 percent increase in the number of monthly movie ratings, while those above the median decrease their ratings by 62 percent. When given outcome information about the average user's net benefit score, above-average users mainly engage in activities that help others. Our findings suggest that effective personalized social information can increase the level of public goods provision.
AB - We design a field experiment to explore the use of social comparison to increase contributions to an online community. We find that, after receiving behavioral information about the median user's total number of movie ratings, users below the median demonstrate a 530 percent increase in the number of monthly movie ratings, while those above the median decrease their ratings by 62 percent. When given outcome information about the average user's net benefit score, above-average users mainly engage in activities that help others. Our findings suggest that effective personalized social information can increase the level of public goods provision.
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=77956960832&partnerID=8YFLogxK
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/citedby.url?scp=77956960832&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1257/aer.100.4.1358
DO - 10.1257/aer.100.4.1358
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:77956960832
SN - 0002-8282
VL - 100
SP - 1358
EP - 1398
JO - American Economic Review
JF - American Economic Review
IS - 4
ER -